Sanchez, Jets' offense continue to struggle

They can raise both hands like a conductor motioning to the back of the orchestra pit, telling their percussion section to quiet down during a specific portion of the melody.

They can brush it off as just the preseason, reminding everyone there's no cause for alarm because none of this actually counts. But there has to be a little bit of concern with the Jets' first-team offense after it turned in another less-than-thrilling performance in Friday night's 16-11 loss to the Redskins at New Meadowlands Stadium.

During the three-plus quarters in which the starters played, the Jets mustered only 202 yards of total offense - 126 of those on the ground - and didn't break a 10-quarter touchdown drought until Mark Sanchez hit Dustin Keller 42 seconds into the fourth.

The aerial attack was virtually non-existent, amassing a paltry 74 yards before Rex Ryan pulled the plug on the starters with just more than 14 minutes remaining. Sanchez was off target early, completing 6 of 12 attempts and throwing a red zone interception. But he did rebound with a decent second half, connecting on 7 of 9 attempts and culminating a ho-hum evening with that touchdown toss to his tight end.

"It's preseason and we need to take it seriously," Sanchez said. "It doesn't feel good. It's not a positive and we need to learn from it and learn from it and figure out why that's happening and be more efficient."

The Jets turned the ball over four times, losing three fumbles to go along with Sanchez's interception.

"The thing that was critical and the reason we lost the game, a big part of losing the game, was the four turnovers," Rex Ryan said. "You are not going to win too many games, if any games, if you turn the ball over four times.''

LaDainian Tomlinson and Shonn Greene were two of the lone bright spots for the Jets offensively, totaling 142 yards on 22 carries. Tomlinson had a 43-yard scamper, and finished with 86 yards on 11 attempts.

Sanchez hasn't been sharp throughout the preseason, but finally got something to feel decent about seconds into the fourth quarter. He guided the Jets on a 15-play, 72-yard drive that took 7:28 off the clock, finding Keller in the middle of the field on second-and-9 from the 10. Nick Folk missed the extra point, though, clanking it off the left upright to keep things at 11-9 with 14:18 left.

Just another mistake in a night filled with them.

"There's still some things that we are still trying to work out," right tackle Damien Woody said. "You are not going to be in midseason form right now. But we are going to be real critical of ourselves, watching the tape, seeing where we need to improve and just get to work. Once we come back from our day off, just really be critical, get to work and everything is all geared toward Baltimore, and really where we want to be at when we play that Monday night game."

Sanchez said: "These last two games might not have left the best taste in our mouth as an offense and I think guys are going to be real hungry. When you take away those games, you take away our chance to let out all that energy and stuff we've built up all week. You take that away for a week and a half, two weeks, I think these guys will be hungry and we'll be just where we want to be."